Friday, October 25, 2013

Are you a dumb bunny?
"Dumb Bunny" is a 1950's slang word for a woman who has done something stupid. Back in 1917, it was probably Bryn Mawr slang for a naive and unwary person, a silly little fool.

Do you do dumb things routinely -- you've got a habit -- something you buy, eat, or do that is really unnecessary, time wasting, dopey, ridiculous?

Hey, for years I've been taking Omega 3 that's been touted, and highly recommended for years. Hey, "Web Doctor, and other medical websites are now saying fish oil does not prevent, help, do much of anything for heart trouble.

Other Dumb bunny stuff: Are you taking "Activia," which the trustworthy Jamie Lee Curtis promises is yummy, and guarantees it will make you "regular? Have you signed up with one of those friendly finance guys who guarantees they'll take care of all your debts and you won't be bothered anymore? Or bought wireless sockets, cleaning potions, a polisher for your car that removes dents, or bulbs that last 10 years -- the seller guys will send you a second batch of whatever it is as long as you pay for shipping and handling.

And your outfit -- are you in the latest outfit that is maybe wrong for you, but golly it's dumb bunny chic? Or maybe dumb-bunny you assumes your Facebook pals are real friends, not dumb bunnies like you, as you're dumb-bunny friending and tweeting, to get more dumb bunny friends and followers?

Hey, send me your list -- tell me what dumb bunny things you do so I can publish this on my timeline as a warning. Send it after you hear my darling John Cullum's voice, singing this song from the musical he starred in on Broadway, "Urinetown."

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Why? Did he buy it to "kindle" it, e-book-ify it in some new way? Will it enable him to do more buying and selling -- of what?

Is Bezos maybe going into Super-PACing? Based on what I've read, I don't think he's into controlling politics -- he's an oddball liberal. Bezos donated $2.5 million to pass a same-sex marriage referendum. He's donated $16,000 to Democrats, and just $2,000 to Republicans. He's spent $42 million to fund the first full-scale Clock of the Long Now, that's designed to last 10,000 years.

That's far, far out, but he's clearly not a man who wants to control who gets elected.

Reading about his childhood and early years, I think that he's a rather wonderfully weird guy, who started out as a precocious brainy, but mosltly average American kid -- a tinkerer -- a youngster who was into sci fit scientific stuff and outer space.

He got a BA degree at Princeton, followed by a job on Wall street where he went into investments, garnering job experience here and there in the money-making businesses, and built a strong resume for a young man who was heading for millionaire-dom.

Bezos is just 49 now, married to the same woman, his first and original wife, with four kids, and, oh yes -- he is a billionaire nowadays. In 1994, while driving to Seattle to attend a conference, (with his wife driving the car), he huddled over a yellow pad, worked out an idea for electronic books. Suddenly, he quit all his jobs, and started his own business.

When I first heard about the Kindle, (brilliant name, I've got to say,) I attacked the idea in a video blog, yelping "Kindle is a stick for firing up a fire -- not for reading!"

I love the feel and look of a printed page. Dreaming of being a best seller writer, (though I'm not), I've have written six books on a computer, so sure, I got into the marvel of analog, then digital computerized words.

But Bezos has changed the world of books. Like Gutenberg back in 1450, whose printing press could produce an amazing 3,600 pages per work day and got the world reading books -- boom -- electronic books was in the news, and selling like hot cakes. By 2010, Kindle and e-book sales hit $2.38 billion.

Today; hardcover books are still being bought; other companies are creating/selling e-books and bookstores all over the world are selling them. Even so, Bezos' Amazon (the guy's got a talent for names) has captured 95 percent of the U.S. market for books in electronic form.

Meanwhile, Bezos' Amazon has gone from being presented as "Earth's biggest bookstore," to the earth's biggest anything store. "Our vision," Bezo has said "is the world's most customer-centric company -- the place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Gulping down more products -- anything, everything -- Bezos been creating a giant super store that offers more for less -- pennies less, dollars less, even hundreds of bucks less -- with guarantees, refunds, exchanges and on line, off line help by friendly humans. Whatever you want, you ought to take a look at what Amazon has at a better price.

What does Bezos want?

He reminds me of Thomas Alva Edison, who, just before he died, was working on making synthetic tires out of the goldenrod that grew in his backyard.

Bezos' eye translates, (sort of kindalizes) everything we need, use, crave, dream of, into a new form. I think the child Jeff's dream of outer space is where he lives. and where he's heading physically and spiritually. Out there in a "space" that we can't really conceive of yet, this guy is seeing, shaping, furnishing a world that doesn't exist yet, with things he intuits, senses, that I need, you need, we need, or will need someday.

Is there's a bit of Steve Jobs in him, and also a bit of Bill Gates and yes, even of Mark Zuckerberg? Maybe.

I think Jeff Bezos is one of the super-smart good guys, who's compelled by his own dreams to create a bigger, better, freer world.

Monday, October 21, 2013

It bothers me that no one and nothing except a few cosmetic ads get to the high wall of what's happening to us as we age.

My friend Fran, who advises me about my blog, sent me an article about new trailer parks providing homes that Baby Boomers might consider moving into as they find themselves needing a more neighborly environment -- an area with helpful people their age living nearby, and compact homes that can be maintained with less effort.

Loud first thought -- NOT FOR ME!

I am convinced that most of my neighbors have been brainwashed by present day concepts of what's important, spiritually and recreationally. Clearly, they like stuff that's the antithesis of what I feel and believe.

But yesterday, my niece phoned, delightedly reporting that she and her husband just bought a condo in an assisted living community.

I cringed.

Cringed? Yep, I shrunk away from the fact that what my niece joyfully rambled on about was what I ought to be thinking about also.

Stuff like picking a place without stairs, a safe place for walking, and things one can do in a condo community like joining a group that sees plays, visits museums, or works on needle-point and quilting ... Oh no, my God, no! I don't want to make a list of things to do to keep busy, but that's what my niece was doing.

BIG BIGGIE QUESTIONS:What if I'm alone? Hey, I can't think about that -- I do think about that -- I've gotta postpone thinking about who dies first.

Can I continue living in my current homewith four flights of stairs, hard to open doors, locks, carpet, furniture, appliances? Oh my God, all the gizmos and utensils one uses every day that wear out, need replacement or repairs ... If there's another "Sandy?" and lights, heat goes out, no phones, no Internet, no fridge -- suppose the roof leaks, a window pane's smashed?

If I am alone, how do I handle it? Do I finish my life here, in my large home, or find a new home where help is more readily available? Who is going to help me at the end of my life? My son? Gee, he lives and works in California ...

What about hiring someone? Marta the maid? Could she be a housekeeper-nurse if I need help to stand, walk, breathe? Could Marta do all the things that one must do in order to keep a body functioning, if ... if ...?

What about funeral, cremation, money, possessions?Do I have to figure all that out right now? Can't I put it off and think about all that later?

Maybe ... probably ... Yes, yes, right now I'll just concentrate on where to live, stay here, and deal with whatever, whenever it happens.

I was a very green new leaf for quite a long time. I became a beautiful autumn leaf, and enjoyed it for a very long time

I need an adage -- a quote from a wise person, or some philosophical something-or-other that I can chant to myself, that supports what I am now.

HOW I GOT HERE

I started out as a modern dancer, contemporary, but balletic. I didn't want to be a swan, or a barefoot dancer. I wanted to dance to the music that thrilled me as a child, and made me want to be a dancer.

I began writing in the truck my first husband, Mark Ryder and I bought, in order to carry our set, props, and costumes for a long one-night-stands tour -- eighty-eighty performances in eighty-eight cities.

We were performing "Romeo and Juliet" nightly, but our marriage was breaking up. Every day while our stage manager drove us two-hundred miles or so to the next booking, I'd type a detailed description of last night -- what we did well, what we argued about, and a travelogue about the town, and comments from the people at the nightly party.

Recovering from the trip and the divorce, I sent my "car book" to a friend who said -- "Em, it's great,but ..." And that became rewrites, and another book. Then, my marriage to actor John Cullum, and then a play that got produced, and another book, big hopes because a famous agent loved it.The title and concept changed five times -- now it's been published, finally, as "Somebody, Woman of the Century." You can buy it, or read about it and my other five novels on Emily Frankel.com